Jesus. The Friend of Sinners

 I once knew a dedicated Pentecostal evangelist. He was a very good, sincere Christian, and he had wonderful ministry gifts. I saw him pray for a little boy who was born deaf. Three months later, the little boy’s hearing was tested, and his disability had vanished.

He was a conservative Pentecostal who avoided every appearance of evil. He would not go to the cinema, even to watch a good movie. Someone might see him and be led into sin by watching a bad movie.

Once he was invited to a family wedding where most people were not strict Christians. People were drinking alcohol. His wife was distressed and outraged that her holy husband was obliged to mix with such worldly goings-on.

I was puzzled. I read in the Bible that Jesus ate and drank with sinners. He did not avoid contact with women, even prostitutes. It made me think about different concepts of Christian holiness.

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.” Mt 11:19 NIV

One night I was driving when I saw a tall slim young woman at a bus stop. She was wearing a tight-fitting dress, and she did not look respectable.

I felt a strong prompting to stop and offer her a lift. Could that be the leading of the Spirit of God? Surely not!

So I stopped and prayed. I was sure it was the leading of God, so I turned back and offered her a lift. She was heavily drugged and talked to me very openly. In fact, she was really he, on his way to a public park to prostitute himself in a public toilet.

I shared the gospel of Jesus, but he said he could not stop his unpleasant night job, because he owed a lot of money to his drug dealer. He told me where he worked in the daytime, so I went to see him to give him a bible.

I walked with him to the bus stop, and he kissed me on the neck. I was so embarrassed, but I knew that was how Jesus loved people. Jesus exposed himself to shame and scandal to rescue people with broken lives.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Lk 19:10 NIV

Repent and Believe.

 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. Heb 12:14 NIV

If this text does not inspire the fear of God in you, then there is something wrong with your faith.

For example, if you are involved in pornography addiction, should you expect to go to heaven?

It's good to proclaim the truth of God, but if you keep aggressively belittling those who think differently, do the outsiders see the love of God in you? Will your religious pride open the door to heaven for you?

If we are saved only by holy living, we must live godly lives.
What does that mean? Can we earn eternal life?

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
not by works, so that no one can boast. Eph 2:8–9 NIV

We are saved from condemnation by God's grace, but we must never forget that we are saved not only from God's punishment, but from sin, from the old unholy life.

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Rom 6:1–2 NIV

God gives us grace to live as disciples of Jesus, not as sinners who expect God's forgiveness lightly and unconditionally.

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Jn 8:31–32 NASB95

I read a story about a prostitute who attended a church service. She kept attending the service and she came to faith. Her thinking and character changed bit by bit. Then she began to tithe. A while later, she left her work in the brothel and began to lead a completely new life.

This conversion was a process. When was she accepted by Jesus as a child of God? Only God knows that. We must not rush to judgement, but we do know one thing: If she had stayed in the brothel, she would never have got to heaven.

But there are many Christians who were never shameful sinners like this prostitute, but they were nevertheless secretly addicted to pornography, or they were cruel husbands, or greedy businessmen. If they don't repent, should they expect God's blessing and salvation?

What did Jesus say?

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mk 1:14–15 NIV

The Holy Spirit in You

 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Mt 5:48 NIV

There are several Bible verses where you can find the expectation that we can be completely free from sin, and must be without sin.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Rom 5:1 NIV

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Rom 6:1–2 NIV

Sin poisons your life. We must never lightly appease or tolerate sin.

But the Bible also warns us that we will never completely reach the goal of sinlessness.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 Jn 1:8–9 NIV

The apostle Paul experienced a painful inner struggle against sin and guilt.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Rom 7:24–25 NIV

As the apostle John wrote (above), we will never be 100% without all sin, but if we focus on our faults and sins, we will live a miserable life.

An empty glass may not be completely empty, just as a good life is not completely sinless. An empty glass is full of air.

How can you get rid of the air? If you pour water or coffee into the glass, the air has to come out.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Gal 5:16 NIV

You can never obey God through virtuous exertion. It is impossible.

You can only satisfy God by living in a close personal relationship with the Holy Spirit every minute of every hour of every day.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,
speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, Eph 5:18–19 NIV

Paul says that we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit again and again and live in loving fellowship with God and other Christians.

In this way we will live in God's light, and God's light reveals what is evil and casts out darkness.

Only Jesus is Faultless

 Who is absolutely faultless? Only Jesus.

We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. Jas 3:2 NIV

Who has never spoken a wrong word? Only Jesus.
Who wrote this truth in the Bible? James, the half-brother of Jesus, a son of Mary and Joseph. He knew that he was a flawed human being. He was not a believer before Jesus' resurrection.

Sometime after the resurrection of his half-brother, he turned back and became a disciple. He then became the church leader of the new church in Jerusalem.

God gave him the privilege of writing a book in the New Testament, not because of his natural kinship with Jesus, but because God called and chose him to do so.

James became a man of outstanding character. When such a man says that we all often make mistakes, that Peter, John and he himself also often made mistakes, then we never have to pretend to always be right as a father, mother, pastor or manager.

As a parent, church leader or manager, we never have to expect flawless perfection.
If I am flawed, then my children are flawed.
If I am flawed as a preacher, then my listeners are also flawed.

Should I accept my mistakes lightly? Should I ignore or gloss over my sins? No.
But fanatical perfectionism is also a trap.

I know a young Christian woman who is wonderfully gifted. She wrote an excellent textbook on spiritual gifts, but she didn't want to publish the book because it wasn't completely flawless in her eyes.

If we think like that, we will only read the Bible, and maybe not even the Bible, because there is no perfect translation.

I know a manager who always criticised his employees very harshly. Once he held a staff meeting and criticised himself for not finishing the meeting on time. He was two minutes late.

There are young teachers who cannot exercise authority because they only think about their own mistakes.

There are managers and preachers who always look down on their subordinates or listeners and always act as if they are always right. That is cruel and ridiculous.

There are churches where everything is tolerated. Where sin is not taken seriously, can you find God's blessing?  

But there are also churches where perfectionism has led to cruel legalism.

Holiness is essential, but if you are not allowed to make mistakes, the love of God is blocked and suffocated.

Friendship with God

 The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes his covenant known to them. Ps 25:14 NRSV

There are Christians who do not take God's holiness seriously, but they approach Jesus as if he were their mate who should tolerate all their excesses.

Real friendship with God looks very different. Jesus said we must trust God like little children.

A Jewish girl grew up in a strange family. Her parents were active in a conservative orthodox synagogue. Her father behaved like a devout Jew, but at home he was a dogmatic atheist.

This was difficult for the girl to understand, but God had a plan to reveal his love to this girl. The girl had a secret. Even her parents didn't know about it.

This girl had secret conversations with her invisible friend. She believed her friend was God.

In her adolescence, she experienced traumatic disappointments, and she no longer believed in God.

As a teenager, she loved horses, but she experienced a tragic accident. The horse she was riding fell on top of her and crushed her.

She had a near-death experience and her soul left her body. In the heavenly world, she met Jesus, who spoke to her with love. She recognised him as the secret friend from her childhood. When doctors revived her, she remembered her encounter with Jesus, and she firmly believed.

Jesus wants to be your friend, but not your mate, who is comfortable with the bad stuff in your life.

We all have serious faults. God loves you anyway, but he wants to restore and purify your life. He doesn't want to condemn you, but like a real friend or therapist, he wants to help you so that God's image can shine through in you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Jn 3:16–17 NIV

Mercy and Judgement

 A man took two dogs for a walk. When both dogs were disobedient, he chastised both dogs. He gave one dog a pretty hard punch on the nose, but he only scolded the other dog in a sharp voice.

A passer-by asked him why he was being so unfair. Surely he should treat both dogs equally. The man with the dogs replied that he loved both dogs, but they had different temperaments.

There are some people who never take God seriously except to hear harsh talk about the flames of hell. There are others who respond humbly when they hear only a gentle message about God's love and holiness.

There are those who have been deeply hurt by bullying from the pulpit. Even though they sometimes need to hear about God's holiness, they cannot endure harsh speech without feeling intimidated by the preacher or by God Himself.

There are Christians who need to hear harsh sermons often, and others who need God's gentle reassurance again and again.

There are Christians who have been so hurt by many harsh sermons that they overreact until they no longer want to endure the clear biblical texts about God's judgement.

Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mk 16:16 NIV

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. Jn 3:18 NIV

They imagine that everyone will end up in God's heaven at some point.

How would the believing Jews feel if they were to face Hitler in heaven one day? How could God be considered just in this case?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. Jn 3:16–18 NIV

God loves us all, without exception and without conditions. We can never earn God's love, but we can accept or reject his grace and forgiveness.

If preachers abuse children, should they be fired?

 In God's heaven there is no sin, no anger, no unkindness, no little lies.
If you are a little sarcastic with your wife, God must forgive you before you are allowed to go to heaven.

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Heb 12:14 NIV

All of us, without exception, are unholy by nature. Those who are sometimes a little lazy need God's forgiveness.
Those who are sometimes unloving or sarcastic need God's forgiveness.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV

Jesus was cruelly executed to take our guilt upon himself so that God would not punish us for our sins.

But we must humbly receive God's free gift. God's forgiveness is free and complete, but not unconditional.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV

We must believe, but that means much more than religious mental assent.

Jesus preached that we must repent and be ready to live a new life with God.

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mk 1:15 NIV

Faith means trusting God. If you believe in a good doctor, you take the prescribed medicine.

Those who believe in Jesus try to obey Jesus.

But do we all become faultless after our conversion?

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 Jn 1:8–9 NIV

If a Christian acts a little unloving or speaks sarcastically to his family, he should confess his sin.

But if a Christian watches porn, will God forgive that too? Or if he abuses a child?

In the Bible, we see how God also forgives terrible sins, but repentance or conversion does not just mean a short prayer.

King David had a soldier killed and took his wife for himself. He had to confess his sin publicly. In Psalm 51 we see his deep remorse.

But if a preacher abuses a child, and he is minimising his sin, can he simply confess and continue preaching?

Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 1 Ti 3:2 NIV

Some claim that all sins are equal in God's eyes. But this is not the case.

If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that.

All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. 1 Jn 5:16–17 NIV

A significant issue within the Church regarding abuse is that its  theology often suggests that all sins are equal, which can lead to minimising abuse and offering "cheap grace" to perpetrators.(Boz Tschividjian... Christian lawyer.)

Paul preached grace and forgiveness of sins, but when a man in Corinth would not give up a sexual relationship with his stepmother, Paul wrote that he should be excommunicated.

Should preachers who abuse children be allowed to continue preaching? God wants to forgive all sins, but different sins have different consequences.